There are Stranger Things in Heaven and Earth
by Slim Dim
Summary: A Buffy the Vampire Slyer spin-off of sorts. Aliyah Whitehead was a normal girl until that fateful day, after that her world was tuned upside down. Rated for voilence and some adult themes.
1. Preface

**There are Stranger Things in Heaven and Earth. **

**In Brief: **A Buffy the Vampire Slyer spin-off of sorts. Aliyah Whitehead was a normal girl until that fateful day, after that her world was tuned upside down.

**Authors Note:** Aliyah (pronounced aleea) means "to ascend" in Hebrew. 

**Rising Dark (Season premier)**

**Preface: **

Aliyah was sitting in the back of the car as her parents drove through the wet country roads; she had been racing raindrops down the window, but now it was raining so hard it was almost impossible to distinguish one drop from the next. 

Something rushed out in front of the car her father swerved to avoid it, but it was to late, the car hit the man and careered off the road into a ditch. The last thing Aliyah saw was his face; it was deformed and his teeth, they were fangs. Then she slipped into blissful unconsciousness.

Aliyah awoke with a start, gasping for breath. _What a horrible nightmare._ She thought, at least it was just a dream. Then she looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings, she was in hospital. 

"You're awake." A voice came from the other side of the room, it took her a second to place it. 

"Granny!" she cried and flung her arms around the wispy old woman. "What happened? Why am I hear? Where's mom, and dad?" She blurted out all at once.

"Calm down darling, I'll tell you all in good time. You were in a car crash." Aliyah watched the older woman's face fall, as though she didn't want to, or know how to say the next part. "I'm afraid, I have some bad news. Your, mom died in the car crash, she was dead by the time the firemen managed to get her out, blood loss, I've been told." 

She just looked up stunned. "What about dad?" She asked her voice quiet and dry of all emotion.

"When they pulled him out he was screaming about daemons, and monsters attacking your mom and killing her." She took a deep breath. "I'm so sorry, but that's not the end of it. His legs, they were badly damaged by the dash board, they don't think he'll be able to walk again."

"No." Aliyah whispered into the pillow, "no," she curled herself into a ball, "no, no, no, no." her Gran stayed there stroking her light brown hair, whilst she sobbed into the pillow.

Outside the room, Nathaniel Whitehead sat in the wheelchair, the nurse stood behind him silently, unobtrusively, waiting for him to come to a decision. He leaned forward in the chair, resting his hand against the glass of the window pain, he watched his mother talking to Aliyah, then as he saw his daughter curl up into a tight ball on the bed he couldn't take it any longer. Bowing his head he wept, wept for his loss, and his daughters. He just shook his head, he couldn't he wasn't ready, not yet. The nurse silently pushed him back to his room.

Within the month both father and daughter got out of hospital. They went to stay with Nathaniel's mother for a time. Then after several moths her dad came to a decision.


	2. Rising Dark pt:1

One 

Aliyah pulled her bag out the back of the taxi, and went to help her dad. Whilst she was pulling him into his wheelchair, she asked him again. 

"Dad, why did you drag me out into the ass end of nowhere with you?" 

"We've been over this darling, we both needed to get away from that place, it hold's to many bad memories. This way we can make a fresh start."

"Yes dad I get that." She pushed him up the ramp toward the front door of a large, by British standards anyway, bungalow.

"But why did we have to go all the way to America to do that. Why couldn't we have stayed in England?"

"This way we can make a fresh start, no one knows us, they won't judge us on what happened before." Sighing she dropped her backpack into his lap and went to unlock the door. "Pleas darling, for me, you're old dad?" She looked at him framed in the light from the porch, he was still hansom, with strong features, and dark hair, she had her mother's hair, and those clear blue eyes. 

"I'll help get the rest of the stuff in from the van, don't want those men breaking anything do we." She said leaving him in the open plan kitchen-diner.

"Thank you." He said it so quietly she could hardly hear it.

As she walked out into the cool night she pulled on the silver chain at her neck and spilled the cross into her hand. All her friends from back home in Sussex had gotten together when they had found she was leaving, and bought her a silver cross, it must have been expensive, it was nearly as big as her palm, it had come with a note saying. 'Now wherever you go, you are not alone.' And a card signed by them all.

She was brought out of her musings by one of the removal men, a burly Texan. "Move out the way missy we don't want such a pretty thing like you getting hurt."  Sighing she moved out the way and went to get some of the smaller things from the back of the van.

By ten they had finished the main unpacking, sorting all out all the furniture into each of its rooms, tomorrow they would begin unpacking the other bits and peaces, She left her dad in the living room trying to find something in one of the boxes, and went into the kitchen. 

Not bothering to turn the light on she sat on one of the stools, staring off into space she began to see things, images, then she was back in the car driving home from some Golf club dinner, then the crash, and that face, she remembered it so clearly, but it couldn't have been real nothing looked like that. Nothing. A sudden crash pulled her back to reality; she jumped off the stool and dashed to the living room. 

"Dad, dad, are you ok?" She called rushing in to find him fine but the box he had been routing through had been upended on the floor. She bent over and began to pick up the contents; it was all the old photographs. She began shuffling them back into neat piles to put back when one caught her attention. It was a large framed one of her mother taken at aunt Edna's wedding; she was wearing a straw hat tied down with a silk scarf, and a pale green dress. She picked it up.

Her dad move up beside her and looked at the photo.

"I think maybe that one should go over there." He said gesturing to the wall above the faux fireplace.  


	3. Rising Dark pt:2

Two 

The weekend went by quickly, whilst they put the house in order, Aliyah spent most of it pushing and pulling furniture around. Soon Monday came.

"Aliyah! Come on you're going to miss the buss unless you hurry up!" Nathaniel called to his daughter.

"I'll be down… Out, in a minute!" Aliyah called back, she turned back to her bed, and the choice, the black top or the red one? She couldn't decide and in the end pulped for the black one it extenuated her pale skin and made her look fears, or so she had been tolled, she quickly pulled it over her head, and a loos fitting shirt, in matching black, left open completed in the outfit. She spun in front of her mirror, perfect! She grabbed her bag and ran for the front door. 

When she got to the bus stop she saw there was a group of girls talking and laughing, she approached them nervously.

"Hi." She said shyly. "I'm new here, I'm supposed to be starting at Tarrenside High?"

"Tarrenside?" The lead girl said, she was a tall, voluptuous blond; Aliyah could tell the blond hair was out of a bottle. "The bus for Tarrenside left a couple of minutes ago. We're waiting for the Cliffgate bus." She turned to her colleges who mumbled and nodded. "It's not that far, if you run you'll make it before school starts." She gestured down the road.  

They all watched the new girl sigh and start off at a light jog down the road.

"That was so mean." One of the others said to the blond.

"Yare, on her first day and everything." One of the others put in. the blond just smiled.

Fifteen minutes later Aliyah was outside the school gates breathing hard, it was lucky she ran five miles a day, and the day was cool, so she wasn't sweating. Adjusting her top and running her fingers through her long hair, she walked into the main foyer. She pulled out the letter with her details on; she was F11, wherever that was. As she rounded the corner she heard a familiar voice. 

"…and actually believed me, she's probably still on her way!" the blond finished her story, and the girls around her tittered.

Stepping into view Aliyah smiled brightly. "Hi, aren't you in the wrong place? I mean with you going to Cliffgate and all?"  

She watched as the blonds jaw dropped. "How did you get here? I mean you couldn't have gotten here that quick on foot?" 

"I enjoy running." Aliyah replied simply and moved to walk off, the blond stepped in front of her, trying to regain some credit with her friends.

"Wait, what is your homeroom?"  Aliyah kept walking the blond grabbed her arm. "Do you need directions?" she asked not letting go.

"From you? You really think I'm that stupid?" She looked down at her arm. "Now let me go." She looked the other girl in the eyes.

The blond dropped her arm, and as Aliyah was walking off she heard the other girl call. "Psycho!" she resisted the urge to go back and smash the girl's pretty face into a wall, her dad had enough problems at the moment without her getting into trouble at school.

"I understand, that sir, but why here?" Markus Brody sipped is Tea as he listened to the man on the other end of the phone. 

"Matters out of our control." The man on the other end said simply.

"So you want me to watch her."

"She will be called soon, our mystics can sense it." The voice replied. "You must teach her."

"Fine." Markus hung up sighing. He left his office and walked into the front, there were some tourists milling around in the entrance lobby.

"Excuse me Sir." A small Japanese man said. "I was wondering if you could tell me about the display in the other room.

"Certainly." Markus, the curator of the museum, replied leading the other man to the display of interest. "As you can see the statue of Odon was discovered here in 1945, by General Pit Rivers. It is supposed to me of mystical importance, and, according to legend, has the ability to, and I quote, 'Raise hell upon the surface of the world.'" 

"I see, and is this the actual statue?" 

"Yes it is."

The small man thanked Markus and left.

Aliyah approached the door of Room F11, and shyly knocked.

"Come in." a female voice came from the other side.

Pushing the door open she entered, the woman was in her late forties with a plume of greying hair and a plump figure. "I'm new here, my name's Aliyah, this is supposed to be my homeroom or something." 

The woman got up smiling. "Ah yes, well you a bit early homeroom doesn't start for another couple of minutes, but do sit down and make yourself at home."

"Thank you." Aliyah replied moving to sit near the door.

"My name's Mrs Hodgson, I'll be you Tutor for this year, and here is you time table." Mrs Hodgson gave her a folder of papers.

Aliyah watched the rest of the class file in whilst looking though the papers in her folder, she noticed the blond walk in. A small girl with dark blue hair, an excessive number of pearsings, and the dark eye shadow indicative of Goths, sat next to her.

"Hi, my name's Meredith, but everyone calls me Merry, what's yours?" 

"I'm Aliyah, but you can call me Ali if you want." 

"Are you English?"

"Yes, I'm from Sussex."

"Is that near Buckingham?"

Aliyah rolled her eyes sighing. "Not really." She couldn't really expect them to know much about British geography, she knew very little of US geography.

Obviously not bothered by the response Merry pressed on. "What classes have you got?" 

"Take a look." Aliyah pulled her timetable from the folder.

"Cool! Were in the same class for P.E. science and history. You'll love history with Dr Brody; he really makes it come to life." Merry said excitedly showing the other girl her timetable. 

"What's that supposed to be?" Aliyah gestured to the symbol on the front of the folder encircled by the name of the school.

"Oh, that, it's the statue of Odon, it's sort of a town symbol, it was discovered here in the 1940's by Pit Rivers."

"Who's Pit Rivers?" Aliyah asked.

"Only the most famous Archaeologist ever, except Indiana Jones, but he's not real, and not a proper archaeologist anyway." A boy, with shoulder length black hair, said leaning over Merry's shoulder.

"And you would be?" Aliyah asked.

"Oh sorry." Merry appeared to blush, but you couldn't be sure under all that makeup. "This is John, he's a bit of a history nut, aren't you?"

"I help Dr Brody in the museum, but I'm not a history nut, I'm an archaeology nut! Sorry, umm, what is you name?"

"Aliyah."

"Well sorry Aliyah, this would be a rather old augment." 

"Historian!"  Merry said.

"Goth!" John replied. Merry just stuck out her tong; she had a tong pearsing!

"Aright." Mrs Hodgson called. "Every one quiet down, quiet down. The sooner you lot are quiet the sooner you can leave." That last got their attention. 


	4. Rising Dark pt:3

**Three.**

Aliyah, Merry and John walked into History class and found a table about halfway back, to sit at. Aliyah watched as a well-built man with dark hair and green eyes walked over to the desk and set down a pile of books.

"Isn't he just a dream?" Merry said staring at the teacher.

Aliyah regarded him for a time, not bad, but not her type. 

"He's an archaeologist too." John whispered.

"Alright you lot shut it!" Dr Brody said, he didn't shout but his voice carried. "To day we're learning about the French revolution." To Aliyah's surprise he was English. "I Ok, so first let's get the basics down, does everyone know where France is?"

Several girls laughed at the quip, Aliyah noticed the blond, identified as Charity by Merry, was among them. 

"Ok Charity. Where is France?" Brody asked.

"Well, um, isn't like, in Europe, or something?" She stumbled blushing,

"Yes, can you be more precise, what is it near? Who dose it have borders with, was it under the ice during the Holocene?"

"Short answer for the last one. No." John said leaning over.

Charity fumbled for an answer. "Sweden?" She tired.

"No, Sweden dose not border France." Brody replied.

Merry's hand shot up.

"Yes Meredith?" 

"France is in Northern Europe, it has borders with Spain, Italy, and Switzerland, it is also next to England." She said, Aliyah was impressed until she saw the map pinned to the wall.

"Very good. You noticed the map." Brody commented. "So who knows when the French revolution was?" 

Johns hand shot up. "18th Centaury." 

As the class went on Aliyah could see why everyone liked them so much, small snide comments and interesting interpretations of events, combined with his genuine enthusiasm, made the class really interesting, it was one comment that stood out.

"The guillotine was chosen because it was believed that the ruling parties were Vampires, as it takes the head off, it will work oh humans and the undead."

The rest of the day went without much event, until P.E. It was there last lesson of the day. Aliyah pulled her T-shirt off and rotted in her bag for the white sports top, Merry had finished changing and was removing her pearsings.

"Hey." Charity called, Aliyah looked up from her search. "Look at Miss Muscles!" She gestured to Aliyah's toned tummy.

Aliyah just shot her a withering look and turned back to her bag, finding the white Tee she pulled it on without turning around, she didn't want them to see she was blushing. She enjoyed exercising and liked to keep fit, but was still shy about people commenting on her muscle tone.

They finished changing whilst Charity made fun of one of the larger members of the class.

In the sports hall, they quickly found John, who looked rather uncomfortable in his white tee and shorts.

"I hate shorts!" He said as they approached.

"Alright, you bunch of Ingrates!" The teacher, a large man in a tracksuit, yelled. "Today were starting our course in Self defence. This," he gestured to a small woman with short dark hair and a nice tan. "Is Lana Thomas she will be teaching you for the self defence sessions."

"Thank you, Mr Grundershaw." Lana said. Her voice held some accent that Aliyah couldn't place. "If you want to start jogging round, to warm up. We don't want you pulling anything now do we." 

They jogged around stretching out Aliyah, had don Ti-Kwan-Do a few years ago and made green belt, and knew how to stretch. She was looking forward to the lessons, as, as indicated by what she had overheard at lunch, were the rest of the class. After warming up they got into pairs, as far as possible into boy girl pairings. She noticed that John and Merry got together; she ended up with some sports jock, with a massive chest and shoulders, if she hadn't done martial arts before she would have been worried about trying to do the moves on him, but she knew that size didn't matter.

The first thing they did was what to do if someone grabbed your hair, Aliyah hadn't done it before but it was easy, which was probably why Miss Thomas had gotten them to do it first. All you had to do was clamp your hands on your head and bend over whilst stepping backward. Then they learnt how to do joint locks if someone grabbed your shirt, Aliyah noticed how much her partner liked that one.

When they had finished Miss Thomas came over to her. "Hello, Aliyah wasn't it?" 

"Uh, yes Miss." Aliyah tuned to look her in the face. "What was it?" 

"I was looking at you move, have you done a martial art before?"

"Yes, I was a Green Belt in Ti-Kwan-Do. Why do you ask?" 

"If you want to take it up again, then I run the Ti-Kwan-Do classes in the local sports hall on a Saturday Morning. Come along." Lana said smiling

"Thank you." Aliyah said, and then bowed before jogging over to where her friends had waited for her.

Markus walked into the sports hall as the students piled out to get changed. He walked over to Lana.

"Markus. What brings you here?" She put the bag of pads down as she spoke.

"Did you speak to her?" He asked.

"Yes, and she's don Ti-Kwon-Do before, and she showed interest in coming to the Saturday sessions." Lana said. "Why do did you want me to do that anyway?"

"I can't tell you."

"Right."

"Look I can't, OK!" It came out harsher than Markus had intended.

"Fine Markus. Keep your secrets" She said picking up the pads.

"Hey, Ali!" Merry called, running to catch up with Aliyah. "Were going to 'The Basement' tonight, you want to come?" 

Aliyah jumped onto the bus. "What's 'The Basement'?" 

"It's local nightlife." Merry informed her as they sat down. 


	5. Rising Dark pt:4

Four 

**A.N. **Be warned rape references in this chapter.

Aliyah walked in to the smell of Chinese. "Dad!" She called. "I'm home."

Her father trundled out of the living room. "Hi honey, I hope you don't mind, I prepared dinner." He said as they went into the kitchen. Aliyah's jaw dropped; there was everything from spring roles, to egg fried rice, to chicken cow-main. 

"Dad, you really didn't have to go to all this trouble." She protested, as he led her to the table.

"It was no trouble. Pleas sit, eat."

She sat down and filled her bowl with Noodles. It was delicious, Chinese had always been one of her favourites, she finished of another bowl of noodles, followed by two bowls of sweet and sour pork with rice. After she had finished they washed up together.

"Dad, do you mind if I go out tonight?" She asked rubbing soapsuds onto a dish.

"No, just remember your phone, and don't stay out too late, it's a…"

"School night." She finished flicking soapsuds at him.

"Hey, any more of that and I won let you go out!" He said flicking water at her.

"Ok, ok." She said hiding behind a dishcloth as he flicked yet more water at her.

A short while later Aliyah was waiting on the corner for Merry. She was wearing a pair of tight black jeans, and a white spaghetti-strap top topped off with her black leather coat, to keep out the cold.

She looked around nervously, looking for her friend. The sound of a car horn made her jump. She whirled to see a couple of boys in a convertible. 

"Hey babe!" One called. "You want us to show a good time?" 

"I don't want what you got!" She called back, backing away slowly.

"Don't know what you're missing!" The other called as his friend started driving of.

As they drove off Merry came running, her skirt and trench coat flapped behind her like a cape. "Sorry I was late. I hope they didn't disturb you." She said gasping for breath.

The two girls walked off down the road, talking about the day's events.

"So what is 'The Basement' like then?" Aliyah asked.

"Oh, it's an old underground car park that was converted into a night club. It will be really fun, Randy's ban is playing a set." Merry replied as they turned a corner. Neither of them saw the car following them.

"Randy's band? Who's Randy?" 

"Oh, year, he's and old friend from junior high. They call themselves Audio Axiom."

"Funky name, where'd they get it from?"

"It means 'generally accepted sound'. Hey look here we are." She pointed to a small boxy building. 

They both walked up to the ticket office paid and walked in Aliyah expected to be met with a near solid wall of sound, but she was pleasantly surprised by the soft undertones of the music.

"When's Randy's band on?" She asked.

"Oh, they should be on in a few minutes." She said absently.

Markus stood in the upper level of the club and looked down at the thronging masses.

Over half of them are vampires, of that I'll be sure. He thought, then looking over to the door he saw the Whitehead girl walk in with her friend. He turned to see a young man walk up and look over the railing. Markus followed his gaze and saw him looking at the two girls who had just entered.

Merry cam over with two glasses of Coke and sat down, offering one Aliyah. She thanked her friend and poked the straw into the corner of her mouth.

"Hey, there about to start." Merry whispered urgently. Aliyah turned to the stage to see Randy and some of his friend's pickup their instruments. 

The silence was broken as the guitar music steeped out across the room, shortly followed by Randy's voice.

_"Maybe it's intuition,_

_But some things you just don't question,_

_Like in your eyes,_

_I see the future in an instant, _

_And there it goes,_

I think I've found my best friend…" 

His voice was lovely, for a time they were just lost in the gentle rhythm of the music. 

The next band up was heavy rock, Merry dragged her to the front and they moshed. 

As the night wore on the girls both had a good time, and Aliyah had forgotten about the two men in the car, but they had not forgotten her.

Aliyah was sitting on one of the bar stools talking to John whilst Merry was off getting drinks.

"So how long have you live here?" She asked.

"Oh, most of my life. My parents moved here when I was younger." He sipped his coke. "What do you think of the place?" 

"It seems nice enough." She replied looking over to where Charity was chatting up some bloke. John followed her gaze.

"Yes, don't let her put you off." He was about to say something more, but Aliyah gasped, clutching at her chest. "Are you Ok?" He took her arm to stop her falling. Her hand convulsed and she shattered the glass. 

Merry came running. "What happened? Are you ok?" She asked. Aliyah had stopped shaking and felt a bit better.

"I'm fine?" she replied. "I think I need some air." She turned toward the exit.

"Wait, are you sure?" Merry called. She just nodded and carried on walking.

The cool air on her face made her feel better. She took a deep breath. There we go much better.

"Hello there girly." A voce said from behind her. She turned to see the man from the car approaching her slowly. "Do you want some help?" 

She turned to leave but his companion blocked her path. She tried to run the other way but he grabbed her. "Let me go!" she yelled struggling against him; the other man began to walk slowly up to her. 

They are going to rape me! It ran over and over in her mind. With an almost physical effort she calmed herself, and tried to think back to her Ti-Quan-Do training. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath, and centred herself as best she could, the man put his hand on her chin and began to lift her face. Now! She thought, and with all her strength she slammed her elbow back into the man at her back, he staggered backwards clutching at his side, but she had didn't even notice as, using her, momentum she launched a reverse side kick, the man in front of her had a moment to look surprised and then he was airborne with the force of the kick, he careened into a pile of rubbish and lay still. At that moment Merry and John came running.

**A.N.**  Audio Axiom is the name of my friends band, and the song is Savage Garden: "I knew I loved you".


	6. Rising Dark pt:5

**Five:**

Aliyah's statement was taken, Merry backed her up by saying the boys has been harassing her earlier. Then she was sent home.

That night she dreamed, she was back in the car crash, she saw the figure at the window, his face was deformed, he drew back opening his mouth. He had fangs! He sunk his teeth into her mother's neck. She awoke with a start.

As she approached the bus stop she saw Charity and her friends. "Oh, look it's our posh Brit!" She exclaimed. Aliyah just ignored her. "What no witty comeback? I thought they taught better manners at Oxford?"

That was it; Aliyah grabbed Charity by the scruff of the neck and pinned her up against a wall. "Just back the fuck off ok!" She said quietly, carefully into the other girls face. It wasn't until she let her go that Aliyah realised she had been holding the other girl off the ground, without much effort.

In school she drifted from class to class, without really taking anything in, until lunch. Merry and John had saved a space for her. She sat down and poked ineffectually at the thing on her plate. 

"I think it's dead." Merry said.

Aliyah bent over to look closely at it. "I'm not sure about that." 

John skewered his with a little plastic knife. "It is now. Whatever it was." 

"It's hamburger surprise." Merry put in.

"You know what the surprise is don't you?" John asked, they Bouth shook their heads. "When it jumps up and says 'Surprise!'" The two girls laughed at that.

"You looking forward to P.E. this afternoon?" Merry asked. " I hear we learn throws or something." 

"Cool!" John exclaimed.

"Should be fun." Aliyah said smiling.

They all filed into the sports hall and after warming up, they were asked to get into pairs, boys with boys and girls with girls, Aliyah ended up with Charity. She looked over to Merry who was with one of Charity's subjects, a tall leggy brunette, Merry gave a 'sorry, but what can I do?' look.

As Merry had been told they were doing throws of a sort. For the first one Charity dropped her on the hard floor of the hall. "That's for this morning." She whispered. Aliyah gritted her teeth and didn't smash her face in. Then it was her turn to throw, Charity ended up sprawled on the floor.

At the end of the session, Aliyah was walking back to the changing room with her friends, when Charity came up. "Look what you did to me!" She exclaimed holding up her arm with a burse on it. "You'll pay for this!" She said, grabbing Aliyah's top she drove her knee into Aliyah stomach; She doubled over in pain as Charity struck her across the face. Time seemed to slow down at Charity's had drew back for another blow, Lana had dropped her bag and was running over the teacher had dropped his clipboard and was running; John and Merry had turned and were coming too. But none of them were going to make it, not in time, not it was just her and Charity. As Charity's fist came down toward her head. Ducking under the other girl's guard Aliyah slammed both fists into Charity's stomach. Charity was thrown back into the wall with the force of the blow. 

Aliyah was sitting outside the principle's office waiting to see him. She had been assured that she wouldn't get into trouble; she had her friends, the teacher and Lana saying that it was self-defence. 

Dr Brody walked around the corner. "Ah there you are Aliyah. Can I speak to you?"

"Sure, not like I have anything to do." She said gesturing to the seat beside her.

"I think this is better discussed in private. If we could go to my office?" 

"But I have to see the principle." 

"Fine, can you come by my room when you're don here."

After being tolled she was of the hook, but to try and be more careful in future, she went to see Dr Brody. Approaching the door she knocked and poked her head around the door. Dr Brody looked up from the book he was reading. Taking his glasses off he gestured for her to take a seat.

"Aliyah, have you felt different recently?" He asked, the question caught her off guard and she stopped to think about that for a minute, there had been the dizziness last night, but since then she had felt fine, better than fine even, she felt energised.

"Yes, sort of, I mean ever since last night, I've been felling really energised."

"I heard about what happed in the gym. You punched her clean across the room." She wasn't sure where this was going yet nut she didn't like it. "Have you done anything like that before?" Again she thought about it.

"Last night there were these men, they attacked me, but one I must have kicked him a good 30 feet." 

He whistled appreciatively. "What I am about to say may sound strange, but if you will hear me out." She nodded. "Ok, you are the Slayer, the chosen one, once in very generation one girl is born with the power a strength to fight the vampires. Aliyah you are that girl."

"Ok, why should I believe you?" She asked.

"Well, there's you felling energized, your sudden increase in strength. You are destined to fight vampires, and the evils that walk the world."

Aliyah's mind flashed on the thing crawling through the windshield to get to her mother. "So what do Vampires look like?"

He walked over to the bookcase and pulled an old volume out. Flicking through he soon found the page and held it out to her. 

"Oh my god." She said looking at the picture, it was the thing that killed her mom.  


	7. Rising Dark pt:6

**Six:**

"When you feel all alone 

_And a loyal friend is hard to find _

_You're caught in a one-way street_

_With the monsters in your head_

_When hopes and dreams are far away_

_And you feel like you can't face the day…"_

Well the monsters I'm stuck with aren't in my head, mores the pity, Aliyah thought; she was having a hard time taking in what Dr Brody had tolled her. She sat alone in the Basement, Listening to Randy's bad play. 

"What's up?" Merry asked walking over. 

"Year you look like you want to kill someone!" John said.

"Oh, its nothing." She averted her eyes as she responded.

Merry was having none of it. "Common, were your best friends."

"You're my _only_ friends." 

"True, but you can still tell us what's bothering you." John said.

"Look, you wouldn't believe me even if I tolled you." Aliyah snapped

"Try us!" John said firmly, it sounded like an order to Aliyah, 

What the hell, what do I have to loose. "You have to promise that you won't tell a sole what I'm about to tell, you, and hear me out." They both nodded. Aliyah waited for the next song to start before beginning. "Ok, well, you see, I really don't know where to begin. Ok, here goes. Dr Brody, wanted to speak to me after I had seen the principle." John was about to say something; Aliyah just held up her hand to silence him and carried on. "Well he tolled me that vampires are real, and that I'm something called the slayer, some sort of super girl that is meant to kill the vampires."

"What makes you believe him?" Merry asked.

"Well he showed me this picture of one, and it looked just like the creature that killed my mom." John was about to speak but she carried on anticipating his question. "About three years ago we were in a car accident, this man just stepped out in front of us, dad swerved to avoid him, and we hit a tree, the last thing I remember before passing out was this grotesque figure going toward my mom."

They were both speechless. 

Markus Brody leaned back in his office chair sipping his tea, when there was a knock on his door; it was the Japanese man from the pervious day. 

"Hello, Mr Brody, would it be possible to see the Odon again?" 

"Certainly." Markus pulled his keas from the draw and escorted the other man into the display room. Markus noticed the man pull something from his jacket pocket, Markus wheeled as the man clamped a handkerchief over his mouth.

The man watched Brody collapse and then picked up the keas and unlocked the display case, he took the Odon statue reverently and held it up looking at it.

"Now we have it." He said.

The following day Aliyah, Merry and John walked toward the history room.

"I wonder what we are doing today?" Merry said excitedly.

"Do you really care, as long as you get look at Dr Brody?" John asked. Merry hit him lightly on the arm.

As they took their usual seats, a small stock woman of about fifty walked in. "Ok, class I'm afraid Mr Brody isn't here today so I'll be taking you for today's lesson on…" She checked the slip of paper in her hand. "The French revolution?" 

She checked the desk making some despairing comments about academics never writing things down.

"Were is Dr Brody?" Merry asked.

"No one knows, he never came in this morning." She said flicking through a textbook.

The rest of the lesson was so unimaginably boring, most of the class started to fall asleep.

"…and that concedes the French revolution." She said slamming the book shut; the sound roused most of the class. 

Outside the three friends were taking. "I wonder why, Dr Brody wasn't in?" Merry said. Aliyah just rolled here eyes.

"No, it is an interesting point, he doesn't usually miss lessons, and if he does he always calls in sick." John put in. "I think we should go over the museum after school."

"Museum?" Aliyah asked.

"Oh, didn't we tell you Dr Brody is the curator of the local museum." John said.

The rest of the day dragged on, and after school the three friends got the bus into town and went to the museum, it was a small converted terrace house.

The door was locked. "That's strange, it should be open." John said pulling a ring of keas from his pocket.

"How come, you have keas to the museum?" Aliyah asked.

"He helps Brody in here sometimes." Merry said as they walked in.

"Doc? Doc? Markus?" John called. There was a sound from the next room. They ran in to Dr Brody pulling leaning on a cabinet.

"What happened?" Aliyah asked

"It was these men, they took the Odon statue. I think they want to use it." He said. They helped him into his office and John pored him a cup of tea. "Thank you."

"Why would someone wand the Odon statue?" Aliyah asked.

"The answer to that is a long tail. So take a seat." The three of them sat in strait backed chairs. "Maybe your friends shouldn't be here." 

Aliyah shook her head. "They already know." Markus eyes seemed to bulge. "I tolled them last night."

"Didn't I mention the secret identity part?" He said despairingly.

"Well year but…" Aliyah trailed off.

Markus sighed. "Ok. Well in the beginning when vampires, daemons and so on and so forth, there was one, she is coequally referred to by the others as the sleeping one, or great mother. Now, I've been researching into the origins of Vampirism, and as opposed to the common mythos that they were created at the end of the daemon era by human daemon crossbreeding, that as a speeches they are much older, and back into the daemon era. When one daemon, Mathria was dieing but she made a bargain with one of the Old Ones that she would give unto him the power to bring ruin on the Earth and smite his enemies, this power dose exist, but it is long lost, and he gave her another chance, but when she saw that he had made her in the likeness of the humans, she took back her word, for this he threw her into a deep state of sleep from which no power could wake her. But by this time she has already sown her seed, and brought forth three children, Agris, Damballa, and Odon. They all went off and fathered satanic cults in recoded history, most ended up in Voodoon, but that's beside the point, Odon, was the most powerful, of her kin, you see each generation loses some of the power, the first vampires were almost as powerful as the daemons but as they make more the bloodline gets polluted, watered down if you will, and they become less powerful, but at this point the difference is so small as be of no import, but back to the story, Odon tried to use his power to awaken his sire, but the Old One had put wards on around her, so that if any power were used its owner would join her in slumber. To get around this Odon put all his power into an idol, in an effort to use this to free his sire, but the Old One stopped him, and killed him, at this point the statue falls out of recorded history until 1955 when Pitt rivers discovers it here."

"Oh." Was all any of them could think to say.

"So you think the people who took it, are planning to use it to revive the sleeper?" Aliyah asked.

"Yes."

**A.N.** The song is Savage Garden 'Crash and Burn." 


	8. Rising Dark pt:7

Seven 

Aliyah slept, and dreamed. Into her unconscious mind crept images, images of blood, death and gore. She twisted and turned trying to get out of it. In her mind she saw a dark figure, standing over a plain, the landscape was bathed in read light, and upon the fields people were dieing, the shadowy figure stepped forward, she couldn't see his face, but he spoke to her. "They will bring me forth, and I will bring ruin upon the landscape. You will never stop me!"

Aliyah bolted upright in bed, sweat had soaked into her matrices, and she was soaked. Walking over to the window, she pulled it open and looked out into the night. Now she knew that which lurked out there in the darkness, preying on the humans that wandered into the night. A brief thought crept into her head, what if Charity were taken by one of those things, almost as quickly she dismissed the thought. She tried to go back to bed, but she couldn't sleep, every time she closed here eyes she saw that dark figure, and a killing that it had brought with it into her mind, she pulled a book from her shelf and began to read.

The following morning she stretched and rubbed her eyes, the book she had been reading fell to the floor as she pulled he self to her feet. She looked over to the clock, 7.30; she had plenty of time to get ready for school.

The school day went pretty uneventfully.  Outside of geography Aliyah bumped into Merry.

"Hi, where's John?" She asked looking up and down the corridor.

"Oh, he's not feeling well." Merry shrugged, pushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "We should be going in."

Aliyah turned to look at the rest of the class filing in. "Yup we should." They followed the throng of students in.

There was a scream from the front of the line, Aliyah pushed past a group of girls and to the front; the scene that greeted her was one of utter horror. "Oh my god." She whispered.

Aliyah was sitting on a straight-backed wooden chair; sitting across from her was Chief inspector Anderson, he was overweight and balding, and seemed to have a grudge against her. 

"So, Mrs Whitehead could you tell me one moor time what happened?" He said leaning into the desk.

"Look officer, I already tolled you. I didn't see anything. When I heard the screams we, my friends and I pushed forward to see what was going on." At the mention of her friends he looked down at the page in front of him.

"That would be Meredith and Jonathan?"

"Yes. Can I go now?" He just nodded. She got up and pulled her jacket from the back of the chair.

Outside she found Dr Brody and Merry talking.

"What's up?" she asked slinging her bag down on the table.

"Dr Brody wanted to know about what happened to Mr Goodwood." Merry said.

"What did you see?" Brody asked.

"He was on the floor, his heart was ripped out," She shook her head at the images. "There was a circle of blood around him, it had symbols on it." 

"Can you remember what the symbols looked like?"

"Not really, just patterns, lines in the blood." She tilted her head back rubbing here eyes.

"It's ok don't worry." He said. "But I do have one thing to ask you. Do you think you could go back, and get a photo of the pattern, they've moved the body." 

She just looked at him; no words were necessary. "I wouldn't ask if I didn't think it necessary, but I think it may be related to the theft of the Odon statue." 

"How?" Aliyah asked.

"They may be using the blood rights to call the power of the statue."

Aliyah pushed the police tap aside and stepped into the classroom. Apart from the removal of the body nothing had been moved, she pulled the digital camera Dr Brody had given her and pointed it at the pattern. Something about it struck her as familiar, it was a double circle divided into eight by lines, like a wheel within a wheel; there were symbols within the circle. She quickly took the picture, and left. But the feeling that she had seen the symbol before haunted her.  __


	9. Rising Dark pt:8

**Eight:**

**AN.** This one is going to be quite gory, so be prepared.

Aliyah had given the photo to Markus, and went to jump on the bus; school had been closed for the rest of the day due to the death of the teacher. She sat next to Merry, looking out the window her thoughts drifted back to the pattern; she knew she had seen it before but where? 

"Do you want to go to the, park this afternoon?" Merry piped up cheerfully.   ****

"I didn't get much sleep last night, I kept having this nightmare, I was just going to go get some sleep." She replied. Giving her friend an apologetic look.

"Oh, common, were just going to hang, you can kip on the grass if you want to." Merry nudged her encouragingly.

"I don't know."

"Come." It sounded more like an order.

Aliyah sighed and agreed.

A while later Aliyah was lying back on the grass dozing in the heat, Merry had found them a spot under a tree, and soon afterward John had joined them.

"What are you doing here?" Aliyah asked, as John strolled up hands in his jeans pockets.

"Oh, my Mom finally let me out." He said simply.

"John's mom is a bit of a hypochondriac." Merry supplied.

"Every time I get so much as a sniffle I get locked in my room with all manner of medicines, it's a pain."

Aliyah maid an Oh sound and razed her eyebrows.

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I forgot!" Merry exclaimed, as the reason for Aliyah's change in mood dawned on her.

"Don't worry." Aliyah shook her head. "I'm over it." The look on her face said otherwise, but neither of her friends pressed it.

"Do you want to play Frisbee?" Merry asked pulling a small disk from her bag. John shrugged and moved away from the tree to play.

"Na." Aliyah shook her head. "I'm gong to catch forty winks."

As she watched her friends playing, Aliyah felt sleep pull at her. John jumped and snatched the Frisbee from the air. A soft breeze rustled through the trees, and cool air slid over Aliyah's skin as Merry caught it and threw it back to John. As if from nowhere a lightning flash slammed down into the ground, the sky, which had been clear unbroken blue, was now black with streaks of red. John dived for the Frisbee onto hard, cracked, lifeless, rock. From out of the earth came horribly mutilated corpses, who advanced on her friends. Aliyah tried to call out to warn them, but no sound came. The first of the things grabbed Merry, and drew back to strike, it's lips pulled back to reveal large fangs. As it bit down into her neck she screamed. Another of them grabbed at John, it dug claws into his throat and pulled away his windpipe in a wash of blood. Another grabbed at There were others now, men and woman running being killed, some trying to fight back, but it was all in vain. Then the shadow came, it was massive, covering the slaughter in darkness. It reached out a clawed hand  and picked her up. 

"All is in vain, I will rise and bring an end to your world." The voice was a deep base.

Aliyah looked down, there was something, each death, seemed to add to it, until she could see clearly, in rivers of blood, the symbol, only one small section was missing, another hand came down and swiped at her, slicing her to ribbons, and her blood completed it.

With a sharp scream Aliyah awoke and sat blot upright.

"Are you alright?" John said turning to her. He cursed as the Frisbee hit him on the back of the head.

"I'm fine." She said as they both walked over to her. She opened her bag and began digging though it for something. She had seen the symbol in her dream, and then it had clicked, she hadn't recognised it before as they weren't exactly the same, but it was close enough, she found what she had been looking for, and began leafing through the tattered book, it was so 'well used', as one of her old friends had said, that the cover was almost falling off. She found the page and looked down at the illustration, like she thought, it wasn't the same, but they looked so similar, she knew what the pattern was, it was a _veve_.

Merry and John trailed behind her as Aliyah dashed into Markus' room at the school.

"Hello, how can I help? Oh, Aliyah it's you. Do come into my office." Markus said walking out of a small office attached to the teaching lab.

"Doc, I think I've found something out about the symbol at the murder scene." She blurted out.

"Come, sit down and you can tell me all." He gestured for a chair.

"Ok, I had this dream, where weird, really old vampires, came out of the ground and started attacking everyone, and there was this shadow, shape, oh I don't know. Something! But, when it lifted me up I could see the symbol lade out below me in blood. When I woke up, I remembered where I had seen something like it before." She pulled the book put of her backpack and, opening it to the appropriate page, offered it to Markus.

He took it and looked at the illustration of the _veve_, then looked at the cover. "Yes, you're right, it is a _veve_!" He exclaimed as the implication sank in. "I never thought to check the voodoo angle. It makes sense, Damballa and Agris both were adopted by Voodoo so why not Odon! Also, you mentioned something about really old vampires."

"Yes they seemed so wizened they didn't look human any more, but more than that, they were partially decomposed, and had claws."

"Yes, there is a vampire legend, that one day, Their Sires and Grandsires would rise and take the earth. It is possible that the sleeper, Mathira, could bring the older more powerful vampires back to serve her."

In a dark room three men sat in a circle surrounding a pattern, the _veve_ drawn on the floor in blood. 

"Come to us, oh great master, come to us we summon you, come in your power and rule over this mortal plain." The figures chanted. "With this death we call you!" As they said the last Charity was pulled from the shadows.

**AN. **The Old vampires mentioned in the dream sequence are not the same as the uber-vampires in Buffy season 7. They are something else.


	10. Rising Dark pt:9

**Nine: **

The commotion brought Markus, Aliyah and the others out into the corridor to investigate.

"What is going on?" Markus asked of the tall blond that Aliyah labelled as one of Charity's friends.

"It's charity, she's been kidnapped." The Blond blurted out. "This man, he grabbed her and dragged her into the back of a van. Pleas you have to help her!" 

"It's ok, we'll try to help, can you remember anything about the van?" Markus asked.

 "It had a name on the side. Moomin? Morgan? Something like that?"

"McMorgan. It must be they've been closed for ages, they must be there." Merry exclaimed. "We have to stop them, I hate to say this but we have to save her." 

"Can we find a way to stop them without saving Charity?" John put in; they stopped in their dash for the car just long enough for Markus to shoot him a look. "Ok, ok, we save Charity."

They jumped into car and putting his foot down in a very un-British fashion Markus drove off, to the warehouse.

"What do you want with me?" Charity asked of the hooded men. 

"We want you to die." One of the men said simply, as he grabbed her top and started dragging her toward the circle that had been laid out on the concrete fool using blood.

"Hey, this is Armani!" She yelled, but he kept dragging her toward the circle. 

He threw her into the middle of the circle and the others started chanting. The one who had thrown her down pulled an intercity worked knife from within his cloak. He grabbed her wrist and started lowering the knife inexorably toward it, she struggled but it was like trying to fight steel, completely immobile.

"Doesn't this heap of junk move any faster?" Aliyah asked as the car cruised at a modest speed of forty. 

"There it is." Merry said pulling the door open and jumping out.

Markus' words of advice were lost as the other two children jumped out and ran for the warehouse. Sighing he got out and pulled a short thick bladed sabre from the boot before following them. 

"Pleas, pleas, don't." Charity muttered. "No, no, pleas, no." The knife descended. There was a sound from across the room. He turned listening his grip, he let her go completely as the door splintered inward, and skidded across the room.

"You really should redecorate." Aliyah's British accent cutting across the room was the last this Charity heard before the man smashed her across the face knocking her unconscious.

"I mean, torch light, its just so passé." The first monk rushed at her, and Aliyah spun kicked him into the wall and was moving on to her next attacker before he had hit the floor.

John and Merry fought one of the monks, Markus moved over to where Charity lay on the floor and scooped her up with one arm under her arms he lifted her and moved fore the door, one of the monks tried to stop him, but Markus slashed at him with the sabre and ran as best as he was able toward the door. "Catch." He called and threw the sabre to John, who grabbed it from the floor, and swung it at the monk who had Merry by the hair, the sword cut deep into the shrouded figure and it collapsed.

The one with the knife jumped Aliyah from behind, and knocked her to the floor. She rolled over and twisted the knife out of his hand.

"Don't!" Markus called out, just to late as she drove the knife into the figures abdomen. The blood gushed down her arm and his chest, into the _veve_. The statue that was in the centre of _veve_ started to glow.

"What's going on?" Aliyah yelled over the defining rush of wind that had filled the room.

"His blood, it activated the ritual. You'll have to destroy the _veve_!" 

One of the monks ran at her, she grabbed him, and threw him over the _veve_ smearing the blood pattern. It had no affect of the glowing vortex, which was growing in the centre of the room. "It didn't work!" She yelled over the now defining roar of the wind.

"Try breaking the statue!"

She turned to grab the statue from where it had been placed in the centre of the circle. One of the monks dived at her pinning her to the floor whilst another snatched the statue from the floor and dashed out the back door. Aliyah rolled over under her assailant, and bringing both knees up to her chest she kicked out and sent the monk flying across the room. But she was too late to catch the one with the statue. Hitting the floor she cursed.

The following day Aliyah was walking across the quad, the sun beamed down, nothing in the world seemed to have changed much since the begging of the week. But she had, nothing was the same any more. It seemed wearied that she could go through so much, just to everything the same.

"I guess they'll just never know how close it came to stopping." John's voice broke her train of thought. She turned and smiled as her two friends walked up to her, Merry gave her a quick hug and John clapped her on the back.

As they walked away she threw an arm over each of their shoulders. 

Not all the changes were bad though. She thought as the sun beat down on her and her new friends.

**The End…**


	11. Sister Act? pt:1

**There are Stranger Things in Heaven and Earth.**

**2: Sister Act?**

**Author's note:** Will contain family issues that may offend some people. It is not my intention to offend anyone with this subject matter and I will try and handle it as sensitively as possible. It will also contain references to suicide. Be warned.

Preface 

Aliyah sat in The Basement listening to the band on stage play, as teens milled around her couples, lone people and large groups all moving around. There was the quiet murmur of hushed voices, over which came the music, yawning she got up, maid her excuses, and walked out.

_"Mom and Dad are fighting,_

_As Rosy lies there crying."_

A young girl, Rosy, lies curled on her bed, though the open door she can hear the razed voices of her parents, they are fighting again, they always fight, it's no different. It's always the same argument.

_"'Cos once again she's overheard regrets of their mistake._

_ As Christmas bells are ringing,_

_Rosy leaves them grieving."_

Rosy clambers onto her windowsill, she pauses to feel the cool breeze caress her face, as her mother's hand never did.

Aliyah walks along the same street hands in the pockets of her long black coat. 

_"The gift she gives the family will be the pills she takes."_

Rosy leaned forward, surprised at how easy it is. It only took a little movement and gravity did the rest. She began to fall.

From down the street Aliyah saw the younger girl falling from her top floor window, she dashed forward, faster than a mere human could, she kicked the gate, causing the lock to splinter, and caught the young girl in her arms. She seemed so light. So small.

Rosy saw the ground rush up to meet her, grateful for the final release, form a life that shouldn't have been. But she felt strong arms catch her, and hold her. She opened her eyes to see a beautiful face looking down at her, she, she being Rosie's savoir, had soft sculpted cheekbones and wonderfully clear blue eyes, the angelic face was framed by a soft wash of mousy light brown hair.

"You must be a garden angel." She whispered into the older girl's chest.

Aliyah wasn't sure what to do, the girl in her arms just looked up at her with total adoration, then she trued her head into Aliyah's chest and whispered something, but her voice was so quiet she couldn't make out the words.

The door of the house opened and a big burly man came out in business suet pipe slippers wielding a baseball bat, which from the size of his waistline he had never used for baseball.

"What the hell do you think your doing?" He yelled from the doorway. "Get off my property." As he stepped forward the little girl clambered out of Aliyah's arms and huddled behind her. "What are you doing with my daughter? Thief! You bring her back now!" He advanced; the little girl cowered further into her legs. 

Without thinking Aliyah went into a defensive stance her hands held out in front of her open. "Excuse me, but I wasn't trying to kidnap your daughter, she jumped, I saved her." She let the accusation leak into her voice.

His eyes drifted to the gate. "Yare, you and Muhammad." He was walking toward her now. He swung the bat back. "Now get out of my way, so I can get to my kid!" He began to bring it down onto her.

"Jason! Stop! What the hell do you think your doing?" A female voice floated out of the house. A small blond in business attire shortly followed it.

"Jasmine, this girl was trying to kidnap our daughter." He turned to the girl cowering behind Aliyah. "Rosy come on, come back." He looked up at Aliyah. "If you make any move to stop her…" The threat was left unfinished, although she could probably take more of a beating than he could dish out, she stayed still, as did Rosy. 

She turned her back on the big, slightly unstable, man holding the baseball bat; she crouched down so she was on eyelevel with Rosy. "Go on, go back to your dad." She just shook her head. "What's wrong, why don't you want to be with them?" she indicated the couple at the door with a slight nod of the head. "They, they…" Girls voice faltered and her eyes widened, Aliyah turned just in time to see the big man bring the baseball bat down toward her back. 

Everything seemed to slow down to a crystalline crawl; Aliyah had all the time in the world to twist upward brining her forearm up into an overhead block, the bat splintered against her forearm, time resumed its normal flow as pain shot up her arm, and splinters of wood flew in all directions. He only paused for a second to stair in aw at the splintered end of the bat he swung at her again, she ducked sideways trying for a punch but her arm gave out and the punch only phased him for a second.  Stepped backward and tripped over a coiled garden hose, she tired to rise but it was tangled around her legs and her right arm had gone numb. He stood over her with the splintered end of the bat held in his hand. He brought it up over his head to handed.

Is this the end? Aliyah thought, trying desperately to get her injured arm to work. ****

**A.N.** The song is DC Talk: "What Have we Become."


	12. Sister Act? pt:2

Sister Act?: Pt2 

"Hey you stop!" The shrill voice caught the attention of bout Aliyah and her assailant. "What do you think you're doing mister?" Merry called running over. "Get off her!"

Jason threw the bat aside and grabbed Rosy around the waist carried her kicking and screaming into the house. As the door closed her eyes met Aliyah's, begging not to be left, not again.

Merry helped her to her feet, and as they walked home Aliyah recounted what had happened back at the house.

"So what do you think? They abused her or something?" Merry said chewing on the collar of her black shirt.

"Don't know, I didn't see any marks on her." Aliyah responded. "But I know we shouldn't have left her."

"What could you have done? Kicked the door down and taken her? Way to get arrested. Or if you're really lucky he has a shot gun under the sofa."

"I know, I know. But her eyes, she thought I had saved her, and then I left her back there with them, him."

"Ali, I know how you feel but there was nothing we could have done, I mean we could call Social serves in the morning, but they may not be able to turn something up."

"Tomorrow might be too late."

"Look, Ali, just promise me you wont do anything, stupid. Promise me!"

"Ok, ok, I promise, I wont go back there and try to be heroic tonight."

With a parting shot Merry left. Aliyah pulled out her house keas, and went up to her room, putting an ice pack onto her arm.

The following morning she was sitting at a table on the grass section that was shared by the high school and the lower school. Merry perched on the end swinging her legs absently; John was like Aliyah sitting on the tabletop resting her feet on the seat part.

"Did you do anything about last night yet?" Merry asked, her mid was obviously the same place as Aliyah's.

"I tolled dad, well told him the edited highlights." She replied.

"So that would be, no catching falling girl, or braking baseball bats with your bare hands." John said.

"Yare about that, he said, I should go to the police."

"You should." Both her friends said at once.

"I mean, even if you don't have any proof that he is beating her, you could still get him on G.B.H. after what he did to you." John put in.

Aliyah just stared off into space.

"Hey. Isn't that the girl from last night?" Merry said, the other two followed her gaze and saw a small girl huddling down in her puffer jacket.

"It's not that cold." John put in, gesturing to the others both girls were wearing long sleeved tops agents the autumn chill, but it wasn't cold enough for the lager coat the younger girl was wearing.

"Some times all the clothing in the world wont keep you warm." Aliyah said absently without taking her gaze off the girl.

"What's up?" They trio jumped in surprise as Markus spoke.

"Oh nothing." Aliyah said quickly.

"You see the girl over there." Merry pointed. "Ali thinks she is being abused by her father?"

"Merry! Do you have to tell every one?" Aliyah said.

"You should go to the police." Markus said.

Having seen her the young girl rushed over to Aliyah and wrapped her arms around the older girls legs.

"Why didn't you come back for me?" She wailed, burring her head into Aliyah's thighs.

At that moment Charity walked past, she was about to make a scathing remark but Aliyah's glair stopped her.

The three of them were in their last class of the day, Biology, sitting at the back talking in hushed voices, Mrs Kimmins the teacher was droning on about capillary action, but most of the class was asleep. Aliyah glanced across at Charity, who was playing hangman on the back of her notebook.

"So are you going to call the cops or what?" Merry asked for the umpteenth time that day.

"Look I don't know! Will you just drop it!" Aliyah hissed.

"Miss Whitehead, if you sat one more thing you will be spending the rest of the week in detention." Mrs Kimmins said.

Aliyah spent the rest of the lesion in a thoughtful silence, not really caring about what the teacher was saying, she had covered this back in England before she had left.


End file.
